Mavericks backed into a harsh Kyrie Irving corner after Anthony Davis' injury

After it was announced that Anthony Davis could potentially miss the remainder of the Dallas Mavericks' season due to ligament damage in his left hand, there are many implications for how this will affect the rest of Dallas' roster, including Kyrie Irving.

Many fans are thinking it's a shoo-in that Irving will sit out the rest of the season, which makes sense given how slim the odds are of Dallas even making the play-in at this point, but Irving's a competitor and may still want to get back into the mix this season.

It's clear that the Mavericks want to keep Irving and don't plan on trading him, as the soon-to-be 34-year-old was described as untouchable for Dallas in a recent report. Given Irving's playstyle, which includes supreme agility and a ton of stop-and-start motions, the best course of action would be to let him use the rest of the season to rehab and train, as there's no reason for Irving to incur more wear on his knees given his age if Dallas is playing meaningless ball.

Best plan would be to to sit Irving now — but he probably wants to play

However, Irving may want to come back amidst all of this, as he's probably excited to get a chance to play with Cooper Flagg for the first time, and Irving may not want to have to sit out over 15 months before having a chance to play competitive basketball again, which is very understandable for someone who has already been out since last March with an ACL tear.

If the Mavericks are able to negotiate with Irving to get him to sit out the rest of the season, this would ultimately be in the best interest of Irving's longevity as well as Dallas' potential goals when it comes to bettering their draft lottery odds, but they can't risk upsetting Irving by demanding he sits out. At the end of the day, if Irving is medically clear to play at some point this season and wants to come back, the Mavericks can't demand he sits out if he won't agree to it, or things could get messy.

Irving has done too much for the Mavericks for them to dictate if he opts to return this season or not, as there's no logical reason for Irving to return this season from a bird's-eye view, but he ultimately should be able to decide if he wants to come back to play a few games this season or not. Irving is extremely intelligent, so there's a good chance he's weighing all the implications of coming back at this point and will probably make a decision once a hard timetable for Davis has been established.

This is not an easy position for the Mavericks to be in, and they should definitely be careful with Irving if he were to come back, which would involve not letting him play both nights of back-to-backs as well as not overdoing his workload and minutes. However, this has to be a collaborative process at the end of the day, as the worst thing that could stem from Davis' injury would be Irving growing discontent with the franchise because they demand he sit out or something of the sort.